Chapter 35 #2
I close the screen but leave the front door open as I turn to go back inside.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about living in the country, not after Thief River Falls, but I’m really starting to like it.
It’s quiet and peaceful. I enjoy being so far away from the city—it’s like we’re on another planet. The house itself is great and the closer we get to finishing it, the more I fall in love with the farmhouse built just before the Great Depression.
Lots of natural light, cross breezes for days, and all the space has been wonderful. I don’t even mind working on the small repairs or decorating the rooms as we finish them.
With a sigh, I stretch my arms above my head then check the grandfather clock down the hall. I need to get my ass in gear for work.
If I was still at Knotted Obsessions, this would be early as fuck. It’s early for my new job, too, but today is the grand opening and we still have a ton to do before we officially cut the ribbon on the doors of Omega Ink.
We started a tattoo parlor.
It was a dream Niko and Dimitri had years ago, one that made a lot of sense considering how talented my omega is, and after he told our pack about my drawing abilities, it was game on.
We found a location, a building just a few down from Knotted Obsessions, used a small fraction of Boris’ money and made the necessary purchases, and we got to work planning our business.
The boys are handling the admin part of things, and Niko and I are tattooing while Sylvan, an omega we poached from Alexei’s most recent auction, does the piercing.
Ideally, we need to hire at least one more of each, but the three of us are enough to get things rolling, and we don’t have much of a choice thanks to the online marketing Leon has been doing the last few months.
Omega Ink doesn’t technically open until noon, but I feel like there’s still so much to do, I want to get in there a few hours before then and get a jump start. Right now, I’m very behind schedule.
I head upstairs and make my way to the only functioning full bathroom—ours isn’t even close to done and the other two are only half baths—walk in, then stare at myself in the mirror until I finally realize I’m doing it.
I need clothes and towels before I take a shower and staring blankly at my reflection isn’t going to make them magically appear, or help me get back on track.
Especially since both of those things are still in boxes in our bedroom and I’m going to have to dig to find them.
I swear my brain has been foggy as hell lately.
Not that it’s unwarranted, I’ve had a ton on my mind ever since the warehouse, but I’m looking forward to the day I can start thinking clearly without hardcore disassociating, or having PTSD flashbacks.
Thankfully, the nightmares have seemed to have stopped for the most part, but that could be more because of the fact that I’m barely sleeping and nothing else.
None of it has been bad enough that I can’t function, not in a long time, and overall I'm managing okay. But I still have tougher days, and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon.
Walking into our room, I cringe at the disaster laid out before me, then frown because I’m pretty sure there were people in here when I went to get Tati up for school, and now…
I smirk and shake my head as I take a few steps toward the walk in closet, and pull the door open with a sigh. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I didn’t think alphas were the ones who got into the whole nesting thing.”
“Little bird,” Leon says with a beaming smile as he rolls to his side then crawls over to me, going up on his knees and grabbing my hips as soon as he’s in range. “Little bird, we’ve missed you terribly.”
I giggle as he lifts my oversized t-shirt and presses his face against my belly before tugging the cotton back down over his head. “I was gone for maybe an hour.”
“Too long,” he mumbles against my skin, breathing deeply while he rubs his face all over me. “I love this.”
“I know.” I start laughing hard as his scruff scrapes against my belly, his fingers digging into my hips so I can’t get away. “You need to shave!”
“She’s gonna pee,” Dimitri grunts from across the room but when I look up he’s grinning, and he has no intention of helping me get away from the alpha burrowing under my clothes.
I shake my head and grab Leon’s hair through my shirt, trying like hell to make him stop even though I know it’s pointless.
If he’s not careful, I am going to pee, and that’s going to suck.
Not only because Niko and I finally got our nest how we want it, but also, even after six months of living with them, I have yet to pee in front of any of my mates and I don’t want the first time to be in my pants while being tickled.
“You’re gonna.” D smiles as he crosses his legs at the ankles while he leans back against the wall. “You’re laughing too hard, and you already have a lot weighing on your bladder.”
“I know!” I squeal as Leon starts on my ribs. Oh my god, I am going to pee all over the place. “I need a safe word!”
Leon quickly pulls my shirt over his head then rests his chin on my belly as he grins. “You have one.”
I blush and bite my lip as I push his hair out of his eyes.
I do, I know that, but it’s not for when I’m being tickled to death and I don’t really want to shout cunnilingus just so my alpha—who was, in fact, the one to decide on that safe word—stops. Not in this scenario, anyway.
I watch Leon press a kiss to my stomach, never taking his eyes off mine. “I can’t get enough of you. You are irresistible all the time, but that pregnancy glow is a turn on I didn’t know I had.”
“What doesn’t turn you on?” Dimitri snorts, his smile turning a touch evil as I look at him again. “However, he’s not wrong. That baby bump is sexy as fuck.”
My blush deepens as I perfume and rub my thighs together.
We found out I was pregnant when I finally agreed to go to the doctor after the whole ordeal at the warehouse. I was extremely early on, a few weeks at most, and according to the four hundred year old female doctor I saw, it most likely happened when I went into heat.
To say I was surprised would be an understatement but as soon as the shock wore off, I panicked.
It took such a long time for me to get pregnant with my first pack.
We never used protection, before or after I got out of that hell hole, and I was starting to question whether I was even able to have kids.
Then, when I lost my baby while I was at the shelter…
I know I was stressed out and going through a traumatic experience so it isn’t quite the same, but it was still scary and made me nervous.
I’ve always wanted to be a mother and thinking there was something wrong with me, with my body, and I’d never be able to carry a baby, it was all I could do to keep from falling apart when we got the news.
But those feelings didn’t last.
Once the anxiety wore off and I was able to really process the news, I got excited. It helped that my pack was practically beside themselves with joy and excitement, and none of them were worried one single bit.
“Because there isn’t anything to worry about, kotenok.
” Dimitri gives me a genuine smile then rolls his eyes as Leon says, “Except how big our baby is going to be. Six months along and you already look like you’re ready to pop.
There is no doubt in my mind that the big guy contributed the most when it came to creating this beautiful life growing inside of you. ”
Tears well in my eyes as I look between Leon and Dimitri, my hands lifting instinctually to rub my belly.
I think they might be right. Not that it matters which of my mates helped make our baby, it belongs to all of us and that’s all that does matter, but I’m pretty big for six months along.
Again, the specifics are not important, not really, but it would mean so much to all of us if this baby is Rune’s.
“Hope not.”
“Oh stop,” I sniffle, smiling as I swipe the tears from my cheeks. “Our baby would be lucky to share genetics with every single one of you.”
Rune huffs from his place in Dimitri’s lap, his head resting on a pillow on D’s thighs while the alpha traces circles around the large scar in the middle of Rune’s chest.
We almost lost him.
We did lose him.
When Hayk shot him, the bullet nicked the right ventricle and he basically coded trying to keep Tati and Bee—who he had put in the closet with our girl—safe.
He was so close to bleeding out, so close to leaving us forever.
It wasn’t until I kissed him that I felt a pulse.
A faint, almost imperceptible, slow beat in the side of his neck despite how cold his lips were, and we moved faster than any of us ever had before to get our alpha out of there and to someone who could help.
Who ended up being a mob doctor with an alter ego Alexei knows.
Talk about panic. All I could think about was losing my scent match, our alpha and mate, and I didn’t care where we went as long as it meant we could save him. It wasn’t until we got the he’s out of the woods for now speech from Dr. Locke that I was able to really grasp the situation.
He’s legit. By day, he’s a renowned psychiatrist with all kinds of credentials backing him up and a reputation that makes him seem like a saint, but he works for guys like Alexei and Ransom on the side, and all under the radar.
I didn’t give a shit about any of that as long as he could save my mate, but after he did, that’s when I had a holy shit moment and felt like I was living a scene straight out of The Godfather or something.
But, Dr. Locke saved our alpha’s life and if he didn’t perform that extremely scary and intense surgery on his dining room table at two o’clock in the morning, Rune wouldn’t be here now.